Daybreak Staley solidified her spot alongside the sport’s teaching greats after solidifying her 600th victory with No. 1 South Carolina’s 72-44 win over Alabama on Thursday.
Staley joins fellow legends like Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt and Tara VanDerveer, reaching the milestone in solely her twenty fourth season teaching. She is just the twentieth lively Division I coach to earn 600 wins.
Contemplating Staley practically retired from teaching final summer time, Thursday’s accolade means much more. Showing on a current version of ESPN’s “Faculty GameDay,” she mentioned strolling away from the sport was an actual risk. In the end, the Corridor of Famer returned and this system needs to be grateful.
Regardless of needing to exchange 5 starters from final season, the Gamecocks clinched an SEC three-peat with Thursday’s win over Alabama – South Carolina’s eighth SEC title in 11 years.
Perpetually a motivator, Staley scoffed at crowning South Carolina an SEC dynasty after Thursday’s victory.
“We have been fairly profitable. I believe Tennessee had a dynasty. I do not know the place we measure as much as them,” Staley mentioned through 107.5 The Recreation. “However except we’re doing issues they have not accomplished constantly, you’ll be able to’t actually name it a dynasty.”
Tennessee has 18 SEC Championships for the report, including eight NCAA Championships since 1987. In the meantime, South Carolina has 13 convention titles and two NCAA Championships in 2017 and 2022.
Whereas Staley is not prepared to contemplate her group a dynasty but, this yr’s membership has extra unbelievable feats to perform forward of the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.
South Carolina’s blowout win over Alabama moved the Gamecocks to 26-0 (13-0 in convention) on the season. With three regular-season video games remaining towards Kentucky (11-16, 4-9), Arkansas (18-10, 6-7) and Tenessee (16-9, 9-4), the Gamecocks are on the point of ending undefeated for the second consecutive yr.
